Orioles manager Buck Showalter was trying to find the right spot to give Ubaldo Jimenez his next start. The first person who says "San Diego" must leave the classroom. Showalter wanted to adjust the rotation and provide Dylan Bundy and Kevin Gausman with extra rest. He lost an off day today with the Orioles forced into a one-game series in Minnesota, but he's got Monday's open date on the schedule. He's also got Jimenez facing the Twins. Buckle up. Jimenez is 18-13 with a 4.39 ERA in 39...

Dylan Bundy was perfect tonight for 5 1/3 innings. The outcome was flawed, but Bundy showed that he belonged in the rotation in the heat of a pennant race. The Orioles couldn't cover for the two home runs Bundy surrendered in the sixth and fell to the Rockies 3-1 for only their second home series loss of the season. Bundy retired the first 16 batters, striking out a career-high eight. Mark Reynolds walked with one out in the sixth and Nick Hundley, another former Oriole, crushed a 1-2 changeup...

Orioles right-hander Dylan Bundy was rolling. He struck out the side in the second. He tied his career high with seven strikeouts by the fourth inning. He had a perfect game through five. But two changeups that found too much of the plate in the Colorado sixth changed everything. Nick Hundley and David Dahl homered to turn a dominant outing into one where Bundy took the loss to the Rockies and rookie right-hander Jon Gray. Colorado beat the Orioles 3-1 and joined Seattle as the only teams to...

SAN FRANCISCO - Good morning from the left coast, where tonight the Nationals open a four-game weekend series with the Giants, another significant test for this team during a long road trip. (OK, so I need to be honest with you: I'm not actually in San Francisco as I type this. I'm somewhere over the Midwest, 33,000 feet in the air, en route from Cleveland. It's still Wednesday night. But by the time you read this in the morning, I will be in San Francisco. Promise.) Before we move ahead and...

"Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" has been on the to-do list for a year. It was penned last year by Yuval Noah Harari, a PhD in History from Oxford and professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The title is exactly what the book is about. This is far more than the laying out of dates and events. This is about what the events meant to the history of humans. Some of the conclusions are far from the conclusions so often found in history books. Let's begin with his chapter on why the...

After splitting two games with the Rockies, the Orioles host Colorado tonight in the series finale. Having lost just one home series all year, going 12-1-3, the Orioles need a win to keep that intact. They lost two of three to Seattle at Camden Yards in mid-May. Right-hander Dylan Bundy (3-2, 3.30 ERA) makes his third start and 25th appearance. Right-hander Jon Gray (6-4, 4.12 ERA) pitches for the Rockies. Bundy got his first win as a starter in the homestand opener Friday versus Cleveland....

No matter how many names are leaked and reported in trade talks and rumors, Orioles manager Buck Showalter knows where to keep his focus. It never strays from the 25 players in his clubhouse. He's been in this game for too long to do it any other way. Players don't seem to be impacted by the speculation. Showalter would know if it became an issue. "Not much. It's blown out of proportion. Especially a club like ours," Showalter said before tonight's series finale against the Rockies at...

The Blue Jays and Red Sox lost this afternoon. It's your move, Orioles. A win tonight would give the Orioles a three-game lead over the Jays and a 3 ½-game lead over the Red Sox. Chris Davis continues to bat cleanup despite being hitless in his last 24 at-bats. He's 9-for-66 (.136) this month with a double, three home runs, seven RBIs, 12 walks and 28 strikeouts. Manager Buck Showalter knows how Davis can heat up in an instant and how he still can influence decisions made in the other...

Orioles catcher Matt Wieters is a two-time Gold Glove winner. So when O's pitchers threw three wild pitches the last two nights, it was a strange sight to see Wieters misplay one or two pitches that looked catchable. One instance occurred Monday night with the Orioles and Rockies tied 1-1 in the top of the seventh. David Dahl was on first base with two outs. He advanced to second on a Yovani Gallardo wild pitch and scored the go-ahead run on Mark Reynolds' single to center. Wieters had just...

CLEVELAND - Ballclubs can plan a season out, think they have everything set as they prefer, even have contingencies in place in case something goes awry. But sometimes they still have to adjust on the fly and go with something that may not have been their preferred course of action but became necessary to attempt to win that day's game. The Nationals thought they had most everything planned out properly this season, and even well into the summer. But when things started to go awry in the last...